The present invention relates to a connector with an indicator, and more precisely to a connector also known as a “quick” connector or coupling.
Certain automobile equipment manufacturers require ways for ensuring that fuel lines are properly installed, in particular to prevent the risk of couplings being incompletely connected.
Thus, certain type couplings that are locked manually typically employ U-shaped clips that enable the user to lock the coupling halves only when one halve is properly in place in the other.
Quick couplings, however, lock automatically. It thus is required that the coupling itself indicates that the connection has been properly made. For this purpose, an indicator part is used that may be ejected or extracted from the coupling at the end of connection.
Such couplings with indicators are shown, for example, in EP 712473; EP 959290; and EP 901592, relating to ejectable indicator parts, and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,722,703 and EP 1734299 relating to indicator parts that are extractable.
These solutions may not be ideal as involving a waste management issue for the user. Such solutions also run the risk that indicator part may be lost or forgotten in the engine compartment of a vehicle where it may give rise to noise or may even melt and foul the engine even before the vehicle is sold.
In addition, the indicator function of such couplings is disable after the first use such that when a second connection is performed later, such as during a maintenance operation that requires disconnection, any subsequent connection no longer benefits from this indicator function as the indicator part has been separated from the coupling on the first occasion that is it used.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,316,425 describes a coupling with an indicator in which the indicator is not separable from the components of the coupling, and in particular from the locking member. Nevertheless, this coupling requires an action to be performed by the operator.
Thus, there is believed to exist a need for a quick coupling that incorporates a function of automatically signaling proper connection, and which function is permanent, inseparable from the components of the coupling itself so as to be reusable after disconnection, and constitutes a mark that is visually highly contrasted relative to the other components of the coupling.